Entries in Naughty Dog
(3)

hile there are dozens upon dozens of gaming franchises that are languishing in obscurity these days, none have quite sparked the sort of fiery demand that Marsupial Mascot Crash Bandicoot has. The once revered Sony icon had recently resurfaced as a cameo character in the latest Skylanders entry, and the fan service in response proved that plenty of folks had still held onto their memories of the edgy Jorts-wearing furball fondly, which didn’t go unnoticed by Activison or Sony.

Wisely banking off of the nostalgia of the Bandicoots earlier titles during his prime, the two companies had finally decided to pull the trigger, Crash Bandicoot: N-Sane Trilogy, exclusively for the PlayStation 4, a remastered collection of the first three titles newly developed from the ground up by Vicarious Visions.

The question here however was never whether or not Crash Bandicoot could be brought back but rather, whether or not he SHOULD be—many of the charming elements of the series are also some of the same rough-edged quirks that relegate the games into being the clumsy 3D relics (pun gratifyingly intended) that they ultimately are.

While there are few conventions that haven’t aged well, and a few new glaring issues that weren’t there before, the trilogy still manages to iron out a lot of the wrinkles of the originals, delivering a wonderful compilation of the Bandicoot’s early outings that both fans, and new comers alike.

t’s weird to think that Naughty Dog’s modern-day, prize winning property has become ten years old in 2016. It only seems like yesterday that we were teased with screenshots of the first entry in development in Electronic Gaming Monthly when it was code named BIG (hell, I even remember that weird brief stint where the name “Dude Raider” was seriously being considered as a title.)

But low and behold; what some panned to be a pandering attempt at building what appeared to be a male foil to the iconic Tomb Raider franchise as flagship exclusive, turned out to be one of the most successful properties to have ever carry the Sony brand instead.

And now it’s at an end—A Thief’s End to be exact. While Drake’s Deception managed to deliver more of the spectacle and action that the franchise is famous for, it was still very much a sequel that mainly geared at delivering more of the same.

Uncharted 4 drives towards something different though; finality, and it doesn’t simply settle at doing this this with flashy action or over-the-top production value, it does it with the one element that I think best defines Uncharted, charisma.

The dimming of lights blur off into the offset of the scene. Joel emerges onto the scene with his stalwart companion Ellie, setting off into to the crumbling remains of society to the next path towards survival. Naughty Dog’s The Last Of Us has done more than simply impress the public with its dynamic take towards adaptive gameplay. But while we’ve seen the active potential of direct combat and the abundant options available to defend against your attackers with, new footage now treats us to the nuances of towards taking a stealth approach and other mechanics that make up this apocalyptic thriller.